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Des Moines-class cruiser

Early Cold War-era heavy cruiser class of the U.S. Navy

Field	Value
section1	{{Infobox ship/image
image	USS Salem (CA-139) underway in the Mediterranean Sea on 16 June 1952 (NH 97605).jpg
image_caption	Salem on 16 June 1952
section2	{{Infobox ship/class overview
name	Des Moines-class
builders	*Bethlehem, Fore River, MA (2)
operators	[[Image:US flag 48 stars.svg	20px]] United States Navy
class_before
class_after	None
built_range	1945-1949
in_commission_range	1948–1975
total_ships_planned	12
total_ships_completed	3
total_ships_canceled	9
total_ships_retired	3
total_ships_scrapped	2
total_ships_preserved	1
section3	{{Infobox ship/characteristics
header_caption	(as built)
type	Heavy cruiser
displacement	*17255 LT (standard)
*{{convert	20933	LT	t	0	abbr	on}} (full load)
length	*700 ft wl
*{{convert	716	ft	6	in	m	abbr	on	1}} oa
beam	76 ft
draft	22 ft
propulsion	*4 shafts; 4 steam turbine sets
power	*4 boilers
*{{cvt	120000	shp	lk	on}}
speed	33 kn
range	10500 nmi at 15 kn
complement	1,799 officers and enlisted
armament	*3 × triple 8"/55 caliber guns
armor	*Belt: 4-6 in (102-152 mm)
aircraft_facilities	*2 × aircraft catapults

Newport News Shipbuilding, VA (1)
20933 LT (full load)
716 ft oa
120000 shp
AN/SPS-6 air-search radar
SP fighter directional radar
6 × twin 5"/38 caliber guns
12 × twin 3"/50 caliber guns
12 × single Oerlikon 20 mm cannons
Deck: 3.5 in (89 mm)
Turrets: 2-8 in (51-203 mm)
Barbettes: 6.3 in (160 mm)
Conning tower: 6.5 in (165 mm)

The Des Moines-class cruisers were a trio of U.S. Navy (USN) heavy cruisers commissioned in 1948 and 1949. Largely based on the earlier heavy cruisers, the Des Moines-class featured improved torpedo protection and heavier anti-aircraft armament. Relatively well-armored and protected, the class was unique in that it mounted nine of the world’s first auto-loading large-caliber guns, the 8-inch (203 mm) Mark 16 guns. These guns enabled Des Moines-class cruisers to fire two to three times faster than earlier 8 in guns with each barrel capable of 8-10 rounds per minute. They were the last of the “all-gun” heavy cruisers (with the representing the final "all-gun" light cruisers) and were exceeded in size within the USN only by the 30000 LT "large cruisers" that straddled the line between heavy cruisers and battlecruisers. and were decommissioned by 1961 but served until 1975. Salem is a museum ship in Quincy, Massachusetts (near Salem, Massachusetts, the ship's namesake); Des Moines and Newport News were scrapped.

Description

Derived from the heavy cruisers, they were larger, had an improved machinery layout and carried a new design of auto-loading, rapid-fire 8"/55 gun (the Mk16). The improved Mk16 guns of the main battery were the first auto-loading 8" guns fielded by the US Navy and allowed a much higher rate of fire than earlier designs, capable of sustaining eight to ten shots per minute per barrel, about twice that previous heavy cruisers could. The auto-loading mechanism could function at any elevation, giving some anti-aircraft capability. While the secondary battery of six twin 5"/38 Mk12 DP guns was essentially unchanged from the and Baltimore-class cruisers, the Des Moines class carried a stronger battery of small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, including 12 twin 3-inch/50 Mk27 and later Mk33 guns, that were considered superior to the earlier ships' quad-mounted 40mm Bofors against contemporary airborne threats.

History

Twelve ships of the class were planned, but only three were completed: , and , with USS Dallas (CA-140) canceled when approximately 28 percent complete.

Their speed made them valuable to escort carrier groups and they were useful in showing the flag in goodwill visits. The first two were decommissioned in 1961 and 1959, respectively, but Newport News remained in commission until 1975, serving for a long period (1962–1968) as United States Second Fleet flagship, and providing valuable gunfire support off Vietnam from 1967 to 1973. The ship's missions included shelling targets close to the North Vietnam shoreline. In August 1972 she raided Haiphong harbor at night with other US Navy ships to shell coastal defenses, surface-to-air missile sites and Cat Bi airfield.

Newport News was the last active all-gun cruiser (serving 25.5 years continuously) and the first completely air-conditioned surface ship in the U.S. Navy. Salem is a museum ship in Quincy, Massachusetts. Newport News was laid up at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and scrapped in 1993, while Des Moines was scrapped from 2006–2007. Dallas (CA-140) and eight other ships (CA-141 through CA-143 and CA-149 through CA-153) were canceled at the end of World War II.

Ships in class

Ship	Hull No.	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Commissioned	Decommissioned	Fate
	CA-134	Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts	28 May 1945	27 September 1946	16 November 1948	6 July 1961	Struck 9 July 1991, scrapped 2007
	CA-139	4 July 1945	25 March 1947	14 May 1949	30 January 1959	Struck 12 July 1991, museum ship at Quincy, Massachusetts
	CA-140	15 October 1945	colspan=3	Cancelled, 6 June 1946 (28% completed)
scope="row" rowspan=3	CA-141	colspan=4 rowspan=3	Cancelled, 7 January 1946
CA-142	Cancelled, 12 August 1945
CA-143
	CA-148	Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Virginia	1 October 1945	6 March 1948	29 January 1949	27 June 1975	Struck 31 July 1978, Sold for scrap, 25 February 1993
scope="row" rowspan=5	CA-149	colspan=4 rowspan=5	Cancelled, 12 August 1945
CA-150	New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey
CA-151
CA-152
CA-153

Gallery

File:USS Des Moines (CA-134) underway at sea, circa in the late 1950s.jpg|USS Des Moines File:USS Salem (CA-139) at anchor off Sardinia on 19 May 1950 (NH 97604).jpg|USS Salem File:USS Newport News (CA-148) underway on 1 February 1960 (NH 106502).jpg|USS Newport News

References

Bibliography

References

Andrew Toppan. (2000-04-24). "US Cruisers List: US Light/Heavy/AntiAircraft Cruisers, Part 2". Haze Gray & Underway.
"About | Iowa Gold Star Military Museum".
(10 January 2018). "The Des Moines Class Cruiser - the Greatest Heavy Cruiser | War History Online".
(August 2017). "Last of the 8-inch Cruiser Guns".
"CA-134 Des Moines Class". GlobalSecurity.org.
"CA-134 Des Moines – Program". GlobalSecurity.org.
"CA-134 Des Moines Specifications". GlobalSecurity.org.
"Navweps.com".
"CA-134 Des Moines – Ship Listing". GlobalSecurity.org.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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